Floating oil containment apparatus

ABSTRACT

Apparatus for restraining an oil slick floating freely on the surface of a body of water whereby it is at all times under control and not fee to spread with movement of water to contaminate the surrounding areas. The oil slick controlling apparatus contains oil-water separation means whereby oil may be removed from the oil slick for further utilization.

United States Patent Inventor Lubertus Bakker Welisviile, N.Y.

Appl. No. 13,637

Filed Feb. 24, 1970 Patented Dec. 21, 1971 Assignee The Air PreheaterCompany Inc.

Wellsvllle, N .Y.

FLOATING 01L CONTAINMENT APPARATUS 1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 210/242,

2lO/D1G. 21 int. Cl E0211 15/04 Field of Search 61/1 F;

210/242, DIG. 21

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,508,652 4/1970 Woolley2l0lDIG. 21 3,219,190 11/1965 Thune 2l0/DIG.2I 3,495,561 2/1970 Trapp2l0/DIG. 21 3,532,219 10/1970 Valdespino 210/D1G. 21

Primary Examiner-Samih N. Zaharna Attorneys-Wayne H. Lang and Eldon H.Luther ABSTRACT: Apparatus for restraining an oil slick floating freelyon the surface of a body of water whereby it is at all times undercontrol and not fee to spread with movement of water to contaminate thesurrounding areas. The oil slick controlling apparatus containsoil-water separation means whereby oil may be removed from the oil slickfor further utilization.

FLOATHNG OIL CONTAINMENT APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION l. Fieldof the Invention This invention relates generally to an oil slickcontainment apparatus including means for separating oil fromcontaminating water whereby the oil thereof is not permitted to spreadwidely and become a hazard for animal life and vegetation.

2. Description of Prior Art The recent development in the art ofoff-shore" drilling for oil as well as the use of large tankers for oiltransportation has accentuated the fact that the failure of such systemsmay set free vast amounts of oil which when floating freely on thesurface of the water become impossible to control and thus subject tocontaminate and pollute vast surrounding areas.

Inasmuch as the critical problem of widespread oil pollution hasdeveloped only recently, little has been done in the art to prevent thespread of an unwanted oil slick before it develops. While patents asrepresented by US. Pat. No. 3,468,421 have been developed to separateoil from water, such means have not been satisfactorily applied toapparatus in a way that it can contain a continuing source of oil thatis leaking into a body of water and thus prevent the pollution of anarea by an unwanted quantity of oil.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention therefore relates to adevice which prevents the spreading of a quantity of oil in the form ofan oil slick floating freely on the surface of the water to surroundingareas.

The device of the present invention comprises essentially an oil-waterseparator which is included within a containment ring in the form of anannular boom floating on the surface of the water and surrounding acontinuing source of contaminating oil. The oil-water separator may bemade to occupy only one or several of many articulated sections whichcomprise the containment ring or annular boom around the oil slick. Thusthe size and effectiveness of the apparatus may be varied to meet theexisting need by the addition to or the deletion of one or moresections. Sections of the containment ring not used to house theoil-water separation means may contain storage tanks for oil as it isremoved from the water.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING These and other objectives of my inventionare accomplished effectively and will become more apparent when viewedin conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 diagrammatically illustrates a typical oil containment ringcomprised of flotation sections which house oil-water separation meansbetween other sections housing oil storage tanks.

FIG. 2 illustrates, by way of example, an articulated joint betweenadjacent tanks, and

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view as seen at 33 of a floating segmenthaving an oil separation means.

In the drawing an oil slick is shown as floating on the surface of thebody of water adjacent an offshore oil-drilling platform 14. Althoughthe source of oil polluting the surrounding water is indicated as comingfrom a subsurface break in the well adjacent the drilling platform, awrecked oil tanker, an industrial leakage of oil, or any other sourceofleaking oil would be an equally suitable source of contaminating oilfor use of this containment device.

The containment device comprises essentially a multiplicity ofindividual tanks 16 in an end-to-end arrangement and pivotally linkedtogether to form an endless containment ring extending around the oilslick. The exact linkage used to join adjacent tanks together is oflittle significance inasmuch as various types of pivotal linkage couldbe satisfactorily used, an example of which is shown in FIG. 2 of thedrawing wherein a pin 18 merely links the apertured extensions 22 ofeach segment together to form a pivoted joint.

Depending upon the size of the oil slick and the amount of oil to beseparated from the water, a number of tanks of the containment ring areinterspersed by tanks other than tanks 24 housing an oil-waterseparator. Each of the tanks housing an oil-water separator has an inletduct 26 for the oil-water emulsion that may be deployed toward. thegreatest concentration of oil-water emulsion of the oil slick, an outlet28 for water which has been separated from the oil, and an outlet port32 for oil which has been separated from the water. The oil which hasbeen separated from the water may be pumped directly through port 32 toan independent collection tank, or it may be stored in one of theadjacent tanks 116 of the adjacent tanks 16 of the containment ringuntil such time as it may be collected and removed therefrom. Thus oil,after separation from the water, is exhausted through port 32 andconnecting duct 36 to an adjacent storage tank 16 having suitableporting connections. Simultaneously, water separated from the oil isejected through an outlet port 2% directly to the clean water outsidethe oil slick and separated therefrom by the containment ring.

In order that the oil-water separator will float upright in the water atall times, flotation tanks 42 are secured to each side of the segmenthousing an oil-water separator. Moreover, each segment housing anoil-water separator has an anchor 45 secured thereto by a cable 47 thatprovides stability to each oil-water separator and the intervening oilstorage tanks 16. If the containment apparatus is to be located inbasically still or calm water areas, the anchors may be replaced by guywires or lines to the shore or other stabilized areas.

Electric power for the various pumps of an oil-water separation segmentof the oil containment ring may be provided by any suitable source thatis housed on the drilling platform 14, in a section of the containmentring itself, or if available, brought in from an outside source.

On occasion the source of oil is other than an ofishore well andprevailing winds or currents force the oil slick emanating therefrom tofloat in a single direction downwind" from its source. In such aninstance the oil containment boom" need be formed only in semicircularform on a single side of the oil source to receive the entire flow.

Selected tanks may be provided with a quick or easily actuated release50 whereby they may be moved aside to provide an opening that permits afloating tank, a barge or other work ship to come into the area enclosedby the oil containment boom 116 in the manner shown in FIG. l.

The tank sections may be assembled or linked together on shore or at astaging area and then towed into position by a suitable tugboat or othervessel. Otherwise the separate units may be delivered via shipboard andassembled at the point of use. Whether the segment tanks 16 thatcomprise the oil slick containment barrier are linked together so thatthey extend completely or partially around the source is dependent uponsuch variables as the amount of oil that is leaking into the water, theprevailing winds and currents, and likelihood of contamination in nearbyareas. For massive or continuous leakage an array of two or moreconcentric containment rings may be adapted to encircle the floating"oil slick."

The tanks 24 in which the oil-water separators are housed are preferablyformed of welded steel plate having an access door 30 on the top thereofthrough which are supplied the various elements which comprise theoil-water in accordance with US. Pat. No. 3,468,421. Each oil-waterseparator tank 24 is additionally provided with flotation tanks 42 andan anchor 45 held by anchor line 47 whereby the tank housing theoil-water separator is maintained relatively stable in all types ofweather and sea conditions.

The tanks l6 linking the oil-water separator tanks 24 are elements ofthe oil containment boom that may be used as storage tanks for the oilremoved from the oil slick or simply as links in the boom that encirclesthe oil slick. Connections 50 in each tank permit the supply or exhaustof oil to a convenient storage area.

The tanks 16 may be of standard metallic plate construction, or they maybe formed from rubberized fabric that enables them to be transported indeflated condition on a barge or the open deck of a ship, and uponinflation serving as links in the containment boom.

In operation the oil-water emulsion of the oil slick is drawn inwardthrough inlet duct 26 by pump 35 to an oil-water separator of the typerepresented by US. Pat. No. 3,468,421. The oil removed therefrom is thendirected outward through duct 32 to a storage tank while substantiallypure water is exhausted through exhaust port 28 to the space outside thecontainment boom.

Finally, the number and relative positioning of the several tanksegments 16 that contain the oil-water separation means is alsodependent, to a great extent, upon the quantity of oil that is beingreleased into the water and upon the prevailing winds and currents, itbeing understood that various arrangements may be made within thepurview of this invention.

What I claim is:

1. Apparatus for the containment of an oil slick comprising asubstantially annular articulate boom including a series of pivotallyconnected independent tank sections, oil-water separation means carriedby a plurality of the tank sections of said annular boom, a plurality ofsaid tank sections comprising oil storage tanks intermediate the tanksections housing the oil-water separation means, duct means connectingthe oilwater separation means to the oil storage tanks for storing oilseparated from water, radially disposed inlet ducts for the oilwaterseparation tanks extending inward from the tanks housing the oil-waterseparation means into the space enclosed by the articulate boom wherebyoil from the oil slick enclosed thereby may be directed into the tankshousing the oil separators and then stored in the interconnected oilstorage tanks.

1. Apparatus for the containment of an oil slick comprising asubstantially annular articulate boom including a series of pivotallyconnected independent tank sections, oil-water separation means carriedby a plurality of the tank sections of said annular boom, a plurality ofsaid tank sections comprising oil storage tanks intermediate the tanksections housing the oilwater separation means, duct means connectingthe oil-water separation means to the oil storage tanks for storing oilseparated from water, radially disposed inlet ducts for the oilwaterseparation tanks extending inward from the tanks housing the oil-waterseparation means into the space enclosed by the articulate boom wherebyoil from the oil slick enclosed thereby may be directed into the tankshousing the oil separators and then stored in the interconnected oilstorage tanks.